During early 1998, the United Christian Broadcasters purchased 34 TV licences of UHF spectrum from TVNZ that had been used for the defunct Horizon Pacific and MTV channels.

[citation needed] Then during June 1998, Prime Television Limited in Australia purchased the unused 34 TV licences from United Christian Broadcasters for approximately A$3.6 million.

The licences covered all major cities and towns, mainly on UHF, except for the Gisborne area, which is served via a VHF signal.

[citation needed] Originally the station broadcast classic British programming, documentaries, sports and dramas aimed at the 30 years and above age bracket.

[citation needed] In February 2002, Prime New Zealand entered into an agreement with Australian media mogul Kerry Packer's PBL (parent of the Nine Network).

[1][2] After this deal, Prime took on a broader and more expensive programming mix and axed the local content to cut costs.

This new format was modelled closely on the Global Television Network in Canada, whose parent company Canwest happened to own TV3 at the time.

[citation needed] Almost immediately, some Australian programmes produced by Nine Network and shown on Prime NZ took on a slightly New Zealand flavour.

[citation needed] In 2005, Prime announced that it would broadcast a minimum of 5.5% of local programmes, following recommendations from NZ On Air.

The final episode, screened on 17 November 2005, showed the rankings of these people as a result of votes collected from the public via text and Internet.

[citation needed] On 4 September 2006, the network relaunched with a modified logo, already seen in print advertisements, and new on-air branding.

[citation needed] In April 2008, Prime switch to broadcasting in a lower quality anamorphic widescreen 16:9 format following the lead of other Freeview and Sky channels.

[citation needed] Prime signed a deal with CBS Television Distribution to air exclusive first run content from 1 January 2013.

Prime was widely expected to be included in the initial group of Freeview channels, but Sky Television had consistently refused to take part, citing poor economics.

"[citation needed] The economics had to do with non-government-owned broadcasters paying less for transmission costs on the government-owned Kordia network.

Unlike their early foray into local news, the new bulletins were screened nationwide and as a result, held a stronger national focus.

During the Rugby World Cup 2011, Prime News hosted several bulletins from the ANZ Viaduct Events Centre in Central Auckland.

During the 2012 London Olympic Games Prime News broadcast from a temporary shared space with Sky Sport.

Discovery NZ),[16] and it was confirmed that Janika ter Ellen, and Wayne Hay will replace Eric Young due to his current commitments he was unable to present the show.

On Monday 13 April Eric Young returned as Weekday Anchor, with Wayne Hay moving to 60 Minutes and Janika ter Ellen staying at weekends.

[citation needed] Prime is the Free TV broadcaster of the ANZ Premiership and shows highlights weekly.